c

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR. JOSÉ RIZAL

cc
 
c
 c
 cc c  J
cc c
cc cc 
c
cccc cc!c ccc!" c#c#cc c
$ c!c c% c c&c'cc !!cc(c c#c c$ J)
c!c c
"c#c*+,c! cc !ccc$ c !c !cV
&c*+,c 
c
cc!c- c!c ccc#c c$ c*"&

The seventh of eleven children born to a wealthy family in the town of Calamba, Laguna, Rizal
attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts. He enrolled in Medicine and
Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas and then traveled alone to Madrid, Spain, where
he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Marid, earning the degree of O
  

. He attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of
Heidelberg. Rizal was a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages.[3][4][5][6] He was a prolific poet,
essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels,
 
 and    
.[7] These are social commentaries on the Philippines that formed the
nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred the militancy of armed
revolutionaries against the Spanish colonial authorities.

As a political figure, Jose Rizal was the founder of OO    , a civic organization that
subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan[8] led by Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a
proponent of institutional reforms by peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. The general
consensus among Rizal scholars, however, attributed his martyred death as the catalyst that precipitated
the Philippine Revolution.

c
c

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARCELO H. DEL PILAR

cc 
 c


c c

cc 
 cc.cc /ccc0c 
ccccccccc
c1cc!c"c!c#c c$ c*"c!cc#c c
!p
c2!J
c!c#c c$ c3c#c4!! &

He served as editor of the vernacular section of the ÷ 

 
 (Tagalog Newspaper), the first
Philippine bilingual newspaper, in 1882. From 1890 to around 1895, he edited the newspaper O

   (Solidarity), mainly through his 150 essays and 66 editorials published under the nom de
plume  .

Del Pilar's militant and progressive outlook was derived from the classic enlightenment tradition of the
French philosophes and the scientific empiricism of the European bourgeoisie. Part of this outlook was
transmitted by freemasonry, to which Del Pilar subscribed.

*
  
  

Del Pilar was born in Cupang, Bulacan, Bulacan, on August 30, 1850, to Don Julián Hilario del
Pilar and Doña Blasa Gatmaitan.[3] He was the last child and the fifth son among the ten children.
His elder brother, Toribio del Pilar, was exiled to Guam for his involvement in the 1872 Cavite
Mutiny. The family adapted the surname ÷  in 1849 pursuant on the decree issued by
Governor-General Narciso Claveria.[4] Del Pilar was descended from the illustrious lineage of
 , one of the sons of the pre-colonial ruling families of Bulacan and Pampanga.

c
c

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARCELO H. DEL PILAR

He learned his first letters from his paternal uncle Alejo. Because his family was highly cultured,
it was not long before he played the piano, violin, and flute. In Manila he took a Latin course in
the school of José Flores and then transferred at the Colegio de San José, where he finished his
Bachelor of Arts degree. He also studied at the Universidad de Santo Tomas, where he obtained
his law degree in 1880.

As a student, he favored overthrowing the Spanish government. Often, he met with his
classmates like Mariano Ponce and Apolinario Mabini in his Binondo house, and expounded on
the need to peacefully fight Spanish rule. His mastery of Spanish language would help hasten
development led him to teach Spanish to children in his neighborhood while he was a boarder of
Mariano Sevilla, a Filipino secular priest. Then about the time of Cavite Mutiny, he used to meet
regularly in a goods store in Manila with liberal Spanish

,  
, and Filipino
intellectuals by whom he was politically indoctrinated about the affairs of the country.[5]
Fortunately, suspicion was not turned on him and he escaped prosecution in 1872.

He worked as

 in Pampanga and Quiapo in January 1878. He also worked for the
 
 
 and at the same time he spread nationalist and anti-friar ideas in Manila
and in towns and barrios of Bulacan. He married his second cousin Marciana in February 1878.
They had seven children and five died of infancy.

c
c

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GRACIANO LOPEZ JAENA


    (1856 - 1896) was a Filipino journalist,orator, and revolutionary from

Iloilo, well known for his written work, La Solidaridad

His parents sent López Jaena to the Davao in Jaro which had been opened under the
administration of Governor General Carlos María de la Torre. While studying at a seminary
institution, López Jaena served as a secretary to an uncle named Claudio López who was the
honorary vice consul of Portugal in Iloilo. His ambition of becoming a physician, convinced his
parents that this was the better course of action. López Jaena sought enrollment at the University
of Santo Tomas but was denied admission because the required Bachelor of Arts degree was not
offered at the seminary in Jaro. However he was appointed to the San Juan de Dios Hospital as
an apprentice. Unfortunately, due to financial problems, his parents could not afford to keep him
in Manila. He returned to Iloilo and practiced medicine in communities.

During this period, his visits with the poor and the common people began to stir feelings about
the injustices that were common. At the age of 18 he wrote the satirical story "Fray Botod"
which depicted a fat and lecherous priest. Botod¶s false piety "always had the Virgin and God on
his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are." This naturally incurred the fury of
the friars who knew that the story depicted them. Although it was not published a copy circulated
in the region but the Friars could not prove that López Jaena was the author. However he got into
trouble for refusing to testify that certain prisoners died of natural causes when it was obvious

c
c

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GRACIANO JAENA LOPEZ

that they had died at the hands of the mayor of Pototan. López Jaena continued to agitate for
justice and finally went to Spain when threats were made on his life.

López Jaena sailed for Spain in 1879. There he was to become a leading literary and oratorical
spokesman for the Philippine reformal issues. Philippine historians regard López Jaena, along
with Marcelo H. del Pilar and José P. Rizal, as the triumvirate of Filipino propagandists. Of these
three Ilustrados, López Jaena was the first to arrive and may have founded the genesis of the
Propaganda movement.

López Jaena pursued his medical studies at the University of Valencia but did not finish the
course. Once Rizal approached Lopez Jaena for not finishing his medical studies. Graciano
replied, "On the shoulders of slaves should not rest a doctor's cape." Rizal countermanded, "The
shoulders do not honor the doctor's cape, but the doctor's cape honors the shoulders."

He then moved to the field of journalism. Losing interest in politics and academic life, he soon
enjoyed his life in Barcelona and Madrid. However, his friends would forgive him these
indiscretions due to his appeal with words and oratory. Mariano Ponce who was another of the
Filipino propagandists in Spain observed, "... a deafening ovation followed the close of the
peroration, the ladies waved their kerchiefs wildly, and the men applauded frantically as they
stood up from their seats in order to embrace the speaker."

Rizal noted, "His great love is politics and literature. I do not know for sure whether he loves
politics in order to deliver speeches or he loves literature to be a politician."

In addition he is remembered for his literary contributions to the propaganda movement. López
Jaena founded the fortnightly newspaper, La Solidaridad. When the publication office moved
from Barcelona to Madrid, the editorship was succeeded to Marcelo H. del Pilar.

López Jaena died of tuberculosis on January 20, 1896, eleven months short of his 40th birthday.
The following day, he was buried in unmarked grave at the Cementerio Del Sud-Oeste of
Barcelona. His death was followed on July 4 by Marcelo H. del Pilar and on December 30 of
José Rizal by firing squad, thus ending the great triumvirate of propagandists. He died in poverty
just shy of two and a half years before the declaration of independence from Spain by Emilio
Aguinaldo. His remains were never brought back to the Philippines.